Jayme Closs kidnap: Suspect Jake Patterson 'saw her on school bus'

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Jayme Closs, her aunt/godmother Jennifer Smith and Molly the dog posing together after being reunited on January 11

A Wisconsin man accused of killing a 13-year-old girl’s parents so he could kidnap her allegedly made up his mind to snatch her after a chance encounter.

Jake Patterson, 21, told investigators he watched Jayme Closs board a school bus that he had stopped behind while driving to work.

He faces charges of killing Jayme’s parents and kidnapping her on 15 October last year.

Jayme escaped last Thursday after three months in captivity, say police.

ADVISORY: Some readers may find details in this story upsetting.

On Monday, a criminal complaint outlined how Mr Patterson came up with the idea of targeting Jayme.

He allegedly told investigators he was driving to his job at a cheese factory one day near the village of Almena when he spotted Jayme get on a school bus.

Image copyrightAFP

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Police say the suspect took steps to conceal his identity

The charging document quotes Mr Patterson as saying that when he saw Jayme, “he knew that was the girl he was going to take.”

Mr Patterson told police he only had worked at the factory for two days, and ended up spotting Jayme on one of the two mornings he drove to work.

The complaint says the accused twice scouted the Closs home near Barron with the plan of taking Jayme.

But he abandoned the plot those times because too many people were in the vicinity.

Mr Patterson described the measures he took to avoid detection, including shaving his head, stealing a license plate, wiping the shotgun with gloves on and modifying his car boot so it could not be opened from the inside.

The charging document says that when Mr Patterson eventually stormed the family home by the front door, Jayme and her mother, Denise Closs, took refuge in the bathroom.

The pair heard a gunshot and suspected the home-invader had killed the father, James Closs.

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